Yet another very lovely piece. Similar to your duckling, I adore the detail on the short feathers around the beak and eyes. The glowing background looks a little odd to me with no other background with it, but the bird itself is gorgeous. I love birds of prey. The subtle colors such as the green back between his legs, and the red tips to the undersides of the tail feathers. <3 Love it.
Sorry, I missed this comment. Yes the finished background did not turn out as I expected. I had tried a similar background on a horse and it came out much better.